An Archaeoacoustics Analysis of Cistercian Architecture: The Case of the Beaulieu Abbey

The Cistercian order is of acoustic interest because previous research has hypothesized that Cistercian architectural structures were designed for longer reverberation times in order to reinforce Gregorian chants. The presented study focused on an archaeoacacoustics analysis of the Cistercian Beaulieu Abbey (Hampshire, England, UK), using Geometrical Acoustics (GA) to recreate and investigate the acoustical properties of the original structure. To construct an acoustic model of the Abbey, the building’s dimensions and layout were retrieved from published archaeology research and comparison with equivalent structures. Absorption and scattering coefficients were assigned to emulate the original room surface materials’ acoustics properties. CATT-Acoustics was then used to perform the acoustics analysis of the simplified building structure. Shorter reverberation time (RTs) was generally observed at higher frequencies for all the simulated scenarios. Low speech intelligibility index (STI) and speech clarity (C50) values were observed across Abbey’s nave section. Despite limitations given by the impossibility to calibrate the model according to in situ measurements conducted in the original structure, the simulated acoustics performance suggested how the Abbey could have been designed to promote sacral music and chants, rather than preserve high speech intelligibility.

Tasting the milk of celestial knowledge. Note about the rhetoric of the portrayal of the sacred in Alonso Cano’s painting The Lactation of St. Bernard (1653–1657) from the National Gallery in Prague

This is an attempt of interpretation of a picture that draws from mystical tradition. It is about the comprehension of a topic in a painting by the Spanish artist Alonso Cano (1601–1667, Granada), from the National Gallery in Prague (O 14 690) Lactatio S. Bernardi – presenting the miracle of lactation, in which the Virgin Mary is squirting milk from her breast into the mouth of St. Bernard of Clairvaux (a historically very famous saint and major representative of the Cistercian Order). Traces of iconography lead up to the Coptic Church, where the typology of the milking Virgin was probably first originated (Galacto Trofusa in Greek or Maria lactans in Latin). The starting point is perhaps the portrayal of the virgin goddess Isis milking her son Horus. In many cultures, milk symbolises physical and spiritual food (e.g. the Milky Way evoking the ancient myth about spurted divine milk). On the other hand, milking is also present in the Old Testament as the image of special blessing; it is a symbol of eternal beatitude and wisdom. The dream/vision of her milk is then – apart from the rest – a sign of abundance, fertility, love, and fullness. The lactation of St. Bernard is an allegory of the penetration of the divine science in the soul. Thanks to this act the saint receives God’s guide, which he can then discharge into his writings.

The Cistercian Mission in Transylvania

Just before 1200 and just after 1240 two Cistercian abbeys, first a male house at Cârța, not far from Sibiu (Sancta Maria in Kerz), and then a nunnery in Brașov (Sancta Katherina), were established in Transylvania, a borderland of the territories ruled by the Hungarian crown inhabited by Eastern-rite Christians, especially Romanians. Conventionally, often following the model of older historiography on Frankish Greece, modern scholars have understood the arrival of the Cistercian Order in this remote area as an effort at conversion initiated by the papal see. Reassessing older evidence within a new historiographical paradigm and adding newly discovered documentary sources, this paper argues instead that the Cistercian mission in Transylvania was tied to local factors, cultural, social, and economic, and thus the White Monks endured as long as their cooperation with the elite of the German colonists in southern Transylvania remained fruitful. In the light of the evidence, and similar to parallel developments in Frankish Greece, neither ethnic conflict nor a desire to convert non-Latins played a determining role in the historical evolution of the Cistercian presence in Transylvania.

Monastic Commitment and Church Politics, 1124–1129

This chapter details how, until he left for Italy in the early 1130s and became involved in resolving the papal schism, Saint Bernard spent most of his time at his monastery of Clairvaux. The years before he dedicated himself to defending the papacy might at first seem rather tame by comparison with what came afterwards. But a closer look especially at the letters composed at this time shows that Bernard was already committing himself to causes that had nothing to do with Clairvaux or even with Cistercian monasticism. In 1127 or 1128, Bernard drew up a statement about how bishops should behave. It is possible to see the beginning of the polemic against abuse of office in the Church. What is remarkable here, however, is not Bernard's concern with the state of the Church. It is his public statement about what was happening in his own Cistercian Order.

Business as Usual in Preparing for Death

This chapter shows how the last years of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, from 1150 until his death on 20 August 1153, were spent in a flurry of activities that provide little indication that he was a dying man. Indeed, he was still involving himself in matters outside the Cistercian Order, so his commitment hardly reflects the situation of someone in the process of dying. Bernard seems to have suffered from some kind of gastric disturbance, perhaps a result of his ascetic way of life. It is something of a wonder that a man who for years had experienced stomach cramps and could hardly consume food or drink, could continue to be active for such a long time. Bernard refused to make any concessions to his own weakness and went ahead with his concerns, dictating one letter after another. One can assume that for the most part he had to remain at Clairvaux during these years, except for a final excursion that brought him to the city of Metz in what today is the north of France. Bernard was tireless, willing, perhaps obsessed with responding to requests for help from other churchman.

Monastic Art, Sacred Space, and the Mediation of Religious Experience

The chapter argues that between the ninth and thirteenth centuries medieval Benedictines understood art and architecture as a means of mediating religious experience. This perspective differs from that of the more ascetic strain of Western monasticism exemplified by Bernard of Clairvaux and the Cistercian Order. The ninth-century Benedictine revival of sculpture was predicated on its insistent materiality and its capacity to engage the multiple senses of the devotee with the ritual settings of sacred space. Whether portable or architectural, sculpture was also used within ritual contexts to convey actual or implied movement in space, thus participating in a larger constellation of images, rituals, relics, liturgical objects, and architectural frames that fashioned sacred space both within and outside the cloister. Setting the multi-sensory approach to monastic art within a broader historiography, the chapter focuses particular attention on architectural sculpture, using the Pentecost portal of Vézelay as a primary case study.

The politics of monastic life: opportunities for exit and voice in a voluntary total institution

Total institutions are by definition totalitarian, but not necessarily authoritarian. Voluntary total institutions consist of members who have chosen to enter, but what opportunities do they have to leave? This article addresses opportunities for exit and voice in Catholic monasteries within the Cistercian Order of Strict Observance. Monasteries have institutionalized important democratic processes regarding membership and leadership. Members are involved in decision-making through community bodies and discussions, but in many practical concerns, superiors may wrest control by neglecting to ask the community for alternative opinions. The superior’s decision-making style therefore crucially affects the range of democratic decision-making in individual monastic communities. Complete exits are common during the initial entry process. The cost of leaving is higher for full members, and the internal exit option to other monastic communities in the Order is therefore of great importance. It means that monastic communities cease to operate as monopolies.

Roof tile workshop in Mezőhegyes (Békés county, Hungary)

This study reports on an Árpád Period site in Mezőhegyes, where remains of an interesting structure were unearthed. Based on the design of the brickwork feature and the significant amount of corrupted roof tiles found in and around it, the structure must have functioned as a roof tile kiln. The best analogies for these roof tiles are found primarily in France (e.g., in Pontigny, Vermenton and Auxerre) and in Egres (Igriș, present-day Romania). Based on the findings, the analogies, and the history of Egres, it seems that the roof tile kiln of Mezőhegyes operated in the 12th century and can be connected to the activities of the Cistercian Order.